Question: Srila Prabhupada in the purport of SB 3.5.11 writes:
“Mundane goodness can enlighten one that the body and the self are different, and one in goodness is concerned with the self and not the body.”… “But due to being contaminated, those in mundane goodness cannot understand the real nature of the self as a PERSON. Their impersonal conception of the self as distinct from the body keeps them in the mode of goodness within material nature, and unless they are attracted by kṛṣṇa-kathā, they will never be liberated from the bondage of material existence.”
How can we better understand this statement? How can we understand self being a spiritual spark being a person?
How can Krishna Katha can help in such situations and can be the remedy for the people of the world?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
The spiritual body (or spirit soul) is described as being situated in the region of the heart and is covered by the subtle and gross material coverings. Prabhupada compares this to a man wearing a shirt and a coat. It is the spirit soul (or spiritual body) which is activating the material body, just as when the man’s hands move, the arms of coat also move. In other words, the spiritual body is present, but covered and existing in a dormant state.
Hearing Krsna Katha (which includes reading Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam as forms of hearing), is such a potent medicine that it can simultaneously cleanse the coverings of illusion from the soul AND awaken one’s dormant love and service attitude towards the lord. Krsna Katha is not an ordinary sound vibration. Below are few of the many purports from Srimad Bhagavatam which highlight the importance of Krsna Katha:
Purport:
There are two important kṛṣṇa-kathās current in the world — Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Bhagavad-gītā is kṛṣṇa-kathā because it is spoken by Kṛṣṇa, whereas Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is kṛṣṇa-kathā because it narrates about Kṛṣṇa. Lord Caitanya advised all His disciples to preach kṛṣṇa-kathā all over the world without discrimination because the transcendental value of kṛṣṇa-kathā can purify one and all from material contamination.
Purport:
We have described several times that there are two kinds of kṛṣṇa-kathā, represented by Bhagavad-gītā, spoken personally by Kṛṣṇa about Himself, and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, spoken by Śukadeva Gosvāmī about the glories of Kṛṣṇa. Anyone who becomes even slightly interested in kṛṣṇa-kathā is liberated. Kīrtanād eva kṛṣṇasya mukta-saṅgaḥ paraṁ vrajet (Bhāg. 12.3.51). Simply by chanting or repeating kṛṣṇa-kathā, one is liberated from the contamination of Kali-yuga. Caitanya Mahāprabhu therefore advised, yāre dekha, tāre kaha ‘kṛṣṇa’-upadeśa (Cc. Madhya 7.128). This is the mission of Kṛṣṇa consciousness: to hear about Kṛṣṇa and thus be liberated from material bondage.
